The blog of Windows Wally, a Windows Support Technician helping common people solve frustrating computer problems.

Troubleshooting Windows 8.1 Hyper-V

Reader Question:“Hi Wally, I noticed that Windows 8.1 has a new feature called Hyper-V visualization. I wanted to install Windows 7 on it using network visualization but I can’t get network boot to work on it. Please help!” – Jacob P., USA

Before addressing any computer issue, I always recommend scanning and repairing any underlying problems affecting your PC health and performance:

Setting up weekly (or daily) automatic scans will help prevent system problems and keep your PC running fast and trouble-free.

Wally’s Answer: The Windows 8.1 Hyper-V feature is a little advanced for all but Windows power users. A beta version of hyper-v was available for Windows server 2008 and Windows Server 2012. Anyone who isn’t a Windows power user and still wants to use operating system visualization to run another operating system in Windows 8.1, can use VMware Workstation or the free and open source VirtualBox. If you have used one of these in the past and if you are having a very hard time with Windows 8.1 Hyper-V, then consider using the more user friendly options instead. However, if you still plan on using Windows 8.1 Hyper-V, there are some hardware and feature requirements that you’ll need to check-off your list first.

Windows 8.1 Hyper-V

Officially called Client Hyper-V, Hyper-V for Windows 8 is a small scale version of Hyper-V used in the Windows Server operating systems. It allows its users to run another operating system on the computer in addition to the host operating system. For many people, the main use of hyper-V will be to run Windows XP on Windows 8.1 so that they can run older software and take advantage of the small size and speed of Windows XP.

Windows 8.1 Hyper-V – System Requirements

You can run Coreinfo to see if your computer supports SLAT. Many laptop computers do not have SLAT support.

A good way of confirming if Hyper-V will work on your computer is to open Windows Features using the Windows 8 search feature. In Windows features look for Hyper-V. Check Hyper-V Platform, and all of the Hyper-V Management Tools.

You should get a warning if your hardware is not supported or if the features have to be enabled in the BIOS first.

Problem

Host computer seems to have lost connection to the network adapter. Cannot use network boot to install Windows 7 as a virtual machine.

Solution

See if your computer meets the minimum requirements and has the features required to run Hyper-V.

Is Your PC Healthy?

I always recommend to my readers to regularly use a trusted registry cleaner and optimizer such as WinThruster or CCleaner. Many problems that you encounter can be attributed to a corrupt and bloated registry.

Happy Computing!

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About the Author

Wally PhillipsWindows Wally is a helpful guy. It’s just in his nature. It’s why he started a blog in the first place. He heard over and over how hard it was to find simple, plain-English solutions to Windows troubleshooting problems on the Internet. Enter: Windows Wally. Ask away, and he will answer.